Activision Adds Color and Crunch to Its Spring Plans for Skylanders

Announcement of springtime toys accompanies deals with General Mills and Crayola

With Easter being the next big holiday on the calendar, Activision is hoping to hop ahead of other toy manufacturers by announcing special springtime editions of two of its Skylanders toys more than a month before the big bunny makes his rounds.

This year’s Skylanders special editions consist of two characters from the Skylanders Minis range: Power Punch Pet-Vac and Eggsellent Weeruptor — decked out in garb appropriate for the season. In addition, there will be a limited edition Earth Trap, modeled on the Easter Bunny, that can be used to trap villains in the most recent entry in the Skylanders video game series, Skylanders:Trap Team.

These springtime Skylanders will come hot on the heels of the Valentine’s Day version of Magic Type Skylander, Pop Fizz. This fetching but fierce-looking pink variant, called Love Potion Pop Fizz (below), is still available for a limited time.

Along with revealing its Easter toy plans, Activision also announced North American marketing deals with breakfast cereal brand General Mills and champions of coloring, Crayola.

The first of these deals has put sets of Skystones cards in specially marked boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Reese’s Puffs, Trix, Lucky Charms and other General Mills products. Skystones is a mini-game in Skylanders that is won by laying down stronger character cards than your opponent. There are four sets to collect.

The Crayola connection will be reflected in special Skylanders: Trap Team Starter Packs that come for the usual range of consoles and supported tablets. These sets, which will arrive in April and be exclusively available at Toys“R”Us, will be in boxes with black-and-white line art that can be colored in using the included Crayola Magic Crayons. The colored-in boxes can then be used in conjunction with Crayola’s Color Alive! augmented reality app. This app will also work with a Color Alive! Skylanders coloring book that is now available.

Michael Simpson is a freelance writer, editor, presenter, researcher, instructor, gadget freak and sci-tech consultant based in British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley. Formerly from the UK, he’s converted from tea to coffee and written and presented on film, TV, science, nature, technology,…